How Does True Love Happen?
One of the characteristics of God is love, and all love flows from him. There are some people we meet who are full of hate. They hate because they have never known, or have never accepted, love for themselves.
God pours his love into us, but we have to accept it. When we do, then our response is to love him in return and to love others. Love does overcome hate.
We love because he first loved us...
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and him in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the ‘Day of Judgment,’ because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
